This invention generally relates to digital data processing and, more particularly, by way of non-limiting example, to digital data processing methods and systems for cultivating and providing guest feedback on rental accommodations.
As more transactions are conducted online, with little or no prior personal interaction with the service provider, there is an increased importance on guest reviews and customer feedback to determine if a service provider is reputable. These reviews and this reputation information is only useful if prospective guests and readers trust the accuracy of such reviews. In industries or markets where service providers conduct many transactions (i.e. a restaurant or hotel) online users may discount any self-serving or fraudulent reviews because they will be outweighed by the sheer volume of other reviews collected by the service provider. However, in other markets, such as vacation rental homes and alternative lodging accommodations, where: (i) each unit is unique; (ii) each unit has a limited number of potential reviewers per year; and (iii) guest feedback is important to the transaction decision, there is an increased emphasis on trusted reviews. Such industries have unique concerns and challenges and require a third-party service to cultivate guest reviews and to verify their authenticity.
In the vacation home rental industry, accommodation managers and listing services may include a limited number of guest reviews on their internet website. Guests rarely navigate back to the accommodation manager site or listing service to leave a review after their vacation rental stay. In addition, third party review sites do not provide an adequate user experience to effectively cultivate verified reviews in highly fragmented markets, such as vacation home rentals and alternative lodging accommodations. Hotels maintain a brand presence that allows guests to self navigate to the appropriate open review submission page of a lodging provider. In the case of vacation rentals, self navigation is extremely difficult. For example, in the Orlando, Fla. market there are over 10,000 unique vacation home rentals represented by thousands of independent owners and small accommodation managers. Allowing a guest to self navigate and leave a review often results in either (i) the guest becoming frustrated and exiting the website or (ii) accidentally leaving a review for the wrong home.
Open (i.e. any user can enter the website and submit a review for a service provider) online review systems, also depend on high review volume to manage fraudulent reviews. Due to the open nature of the system (i.e. allowing any user to leave a review of a lodging accommodation) the system is susceptible to self promotion and malicious competitive reviews. In high transaction-volume services, such as hotels, fraudulent reviews can be managed and discounted based on the sheer volume of user reviews. Low transaction-volume lodging services, such as vacation home rentals, are more vulnerable and require an alternative system to both cultivate and verify the authenticity of reviews.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to provide improved methods and systems for digital data processing.
Still another object of the invention is to provide such methods and systems as are adapted to support cultivating and providing customer/client feedback for good/services in (a) highly fragmented markets and/or (b) markets in which those goods/services are (i) unique, (ii) have a limited number of potential reviewers, and/or (iii) for which is an increased emphasis on trusted reviews.
A related object is to provide such methods and system as are adapted for, by way of non-limiting example, cultivating and providing guest feedback for vacation rental homes and alternative lodging accommodations.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such methods and systems as can be implemented with legacy computing componentry and/or using legacy data.